Hello all! I’ve been living in the woods of Vermont for 69 days! Coincidence? I think so.

Here is a photo of the Scouts i’m living with:

From Left to Right: Squatch Matrix, Bitch Hog, Old Cotton (me) and Foam Breeze. I drew about 32 pages in eighteen days! Black River is getting really awesome and really weird at the same time. Ghostshrimp is piling on some crazy ideas. I cant wait for everyone to get to read it. I should have it printed by August first-ish. Here’s one of my favorite pages all close up style. I’ve definitely leveled UP a bunch at drawing foliage and the woods. Being that I walk through them everyday. Also, we started playing Dungeons and Dragons. Here is my lady rogue, Arya Speedwagon. I blurred out the backstory stuff cause I don’t want the other scouts to know about her.

Also, I’ve been thinking of doing a new business card. It will probably tie into this postcard that I drew in the woods and colored at CCS.

I’ll blog again next week. I got tagged in a thing and have to. See you then.

Last August, I was invited to attend the second “class” of Ghostscouts in The Ghostshrimp National Forest. It was a wild a crazy ride of a month! A month spent building cabins and teepees, building LIFELONG friendships, and building on artistic skills.

I can honestly say that month changed the course of my life, indefinitely. I attended comic book school and it was fun and leveled me up a BUNCH. Ghostshrimp leveled me up two fold, both artistically and homesteading…ly. Ghostshrimp has asked me back for a YEAR! I know. It’s no big surprise. (secret…it is) I get to return to my favorite state to, once again, draw tons of comics. However, this time, I’m going to fully document my metamorphosis. I’ve set up a bit of a kick…jumper (though..i AM a part of THIS) to help me get going. i’m calling it GHOSTSTARTER! To prove to you the caliber of stuff you’ll receive, here’s some stuff i’ve been doing lately:

I’ve been having too many adventures so far this year, and not blogging enough (or at all). So, this is my first blog of the new year. In December, I quit my job. I spent most of January working very little and being sad and having a weird schedule. I now have a job i dig and have a set schedule. I found myself drawing a lot more with the correct amount of sleep.

Black River is coming along swimmingly. I’ll post some pages from that later. For now, I’ll show off some woods drawings I’ve done recently for people who gave me money to live in the Ghost Shrimp National Forest last August.

My sister got me some Copic markers for christmas. I like them a lot more than Prismacolors. The colors she picked really compliment my digital coloring, which I like. She’s a pretty decent little sister.

Also, I was doodling some of the stuff I’ve been into recently. Here are a few goodies:

I’m working on two separate chapters of Black River. One is more of an eight page one-shot. It would chronologically come before the first issue. My art game has upped in the last year, so I’m not going to include it at the beginning of chapter one. It’s, like, issue zero. Remember when Image Comics used to do stuff like that?

I’m sitting barefoot on a couch in West Asheville, NC at the home base of Woolly Press. I got into town Monday afternoon and dove right into the printing process. Woolly Press utilizes a risograph printer. I’m making this all sound so official. The riso is in the kitchen. We’re collectively learning how to process colors and separate them in photoshop. I feel like this is the scene at the beginning of a movie. Where the big corporation starts with a couple of people in a garage. In ten years, Colin will be getting fired as CEO because the board thinks he is overstepping his bounds. Or maybe not.

It’s been an exciting couple of days, to say the least.

Check out the awesome process green we go on this:

That’s a blue layer at 30%, then yellow at 30% finished with black at 100.

People seem to really like The Adventures of Juniper Black. I started drawing part two, set in a jungle. Juniper is around 16 or 17 now. I drew about two and a half pages before I realized it wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. The woods weren’t creepy enough.

So I started over, yesterday. This part is the opposite of the last story. Juniper’s still older, but it’s going to take place in a cave.

I get to fill in a LOT of black space. The spot color will be yellow, I’m thinking:

I’m actually sketching character designs for this little book. I don’t really do that with Black River. So, I can have a neat little “sketchbook” section in the printed version. I always like it when books have those.

Also, I did an illustration for the monthly Ghostshrimp Illustration Contest. The words this month were “Phantom Breakfast Robber”. I find that my first idea is the one I usually go with. Also, all the scouts from ghostcamp have shout outs in this drawing (thus the random pickle jar):

Finally, I did some ChronoTrigger fan art for my buddy Jesse Durona‘s SNES anthology. I colored it in, but I want you to buy it from him. So, here’s the dull uncolored version. More details on where to get a copy, as they develop.

Audio: Of Monsters And Men.My Head Is An Animal / Radiohead.In Rainbows

Wow, I haven’t posted in a while. Longer than I remember, even. I’ve been busy between work and comics and playin the crap out of Bioshock Infinite.
Let me start by saying Bioshock Infinite had a LOT to live up to, as far as I was concerned. The whole game was pretty amazing. Just as I started to feel it was “ho-hum”, it flipped the story on me. I highly recommend it to pretty much everyone who likes story driven games. Zero Punctuation did a pretty good review of it.
Aside from that, I’ve been churning out pages of comics. All the pages of Black River part two are slowly coming along:

I’m also, working on a story that i’m trying to do as fast as i can. I spend, maybe 30 minutes a page. Quick sketched pencils and fast inks. The working title is “Art Show 2008”. It’s mostly about time travel:

Finally, most recently, I’ve been doing some new Lincoln Franklin Ghost Hunters 2070 stuff. It’s a story I’ve been wanting to do for about 2 years. It takes place immediately after the 3rd chapter of the first book. I drew these pages in the last week. I think I’m going to try to do another chapter and collect the two into the next book by Heroes Con. This story is also, strangely, about time travel:

It’s been a while since I drew all these Linky Franky characters. This chapter doesn’t really have Goodnight Moon or Goodnight Stars. I was getting antsy, so I drew this the other day…just for fun:

I’m also thinking of putting out the first book with a kind of “directors commentary” format. To point out all the little things I hid in those books, I’m sure no one will ever notice.
Also, I’ve been working with a Pentel Brush pen more often. I rocked out this fan art of Ashley Wood‘s Robots Vs. Amazons drawing a while ago and tried out new coloring techniques:

Also, I did this fan art for my friend Ian’s tumblr. Naked ladies with animal skulls for heads?! Seems right up my alley:

Finally, I did some fan art for my long time idol Trent Kaniuga’s new webcomic Twilight Monk. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you’ll notice Trent’s influence in my stuff:

So, I am, in fact busy. I’ll most likely post the original Lincoln Franklin story soon. It’ll have it’s own tab like Brohenge.

I’ve been kind of busy, as of late. Less with drawing and more with work. I’ve been coloring a huge drawing for my friend Andrew Greenstone‘s website. I don’t want to post the line art, since it’s not mine. Plus, I’m not done coloring it. Here’s a snippet of it, though:
Aside from that, I’ve been making flyers for friends. One is my friend Ryan and I spinning records together. When we spin together, we do so under the name Oculus Repairo. The other is for my friend Parker’s bar, The Sparrow. It’s for his Super Bowl party. I got paid for it!

Slowly but surely, I’ve been drawing some comics, too. I’d been reading lots of Heavy Metal back issues. While reading, I was thinking about how all the stories are so poignant. I’m just not a good enough writer to say something as cosmic.
I may have gotten a little more intoxicated towards the end of that, than I should have been. Thus, the drink and ink line.
Also, i’ve super slowly been working on Black River. Here’s the next page. Number eight for those of you keeping track. The first 7 can be read here. I’m currently working on the second chapter, where the gang goes swimming. I introduce the other two main characters on the page after this one. This is the only one I’ve gotten around to grey scaling:
That’s about all I’m working on. Charleston has gotten me way more busy than White River had me. Hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones. My car has totally stopped working. I’ll have to save some money to get it fixed. I’ve been reading great comics and watching uplifting movies. Life’s kind of crazy, but I’m trying to stay positive. It’s easier, here, in Charleston (and less cold).

Audio: The Decemberists.The Hazzards Of Love / The Middle East.Recordings Of The Middle East